Anaerobic piggery lagoons are the major source of odor from piggeries in Australia. Data from recent research indicates that up to 75% of the odor emitted by an Australian piggery is from the primary lagoons (Smith et al., 1999). Six piggery lagoons in southeast Queensland were sampled from February 2001 to August 2001 using a wind tunnel. Six or more odor samples were taken from each lagoon’s surface using an equidistantly spaced grid pattern. The number of sample points on each lagoon was proportional to the lagoons surface area. Samples were taken using a wind tunnel. Odor concentration determination was undertaken using a dynamic olfactometer and odor emission rates (OER or E) were calculated using standard formula.

The results show that there is a significant amount of spatial variability in the odor emission rate across the surface of anaerobic lagoons. This phenomenon was observed at all of the lagoons studied over both of the study seasons. A 95% confidence interval based on the number of samples and the operating criteria of the olfactometer showed that for each lagoon on all sampling days, odor emission rates for a proportion of the sampling points were outside the calculated confidence interval. This indicates that the emission of odor from anaerobic piggery lagoons is not uniform as previously thought and that future studies should ensure representative samples are taken when determining odor emission rates.
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